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Jellied Veal Loaf
Salt and pepper Signa E. Nelson.
Cover with cold water, season with salt and cook gently until very tender. Remove meat and boil liquor down to about one cup. Shred or chop the veal, mix with the liquid and turn into a bread pan. Set in refrigerator to mould. When cold, slice and serve. Makes a good-sized loaf.
3 lb. knuckle veal. Mrs. Geo. Wright. 3 C cold beef, sliced 2 C brown stock 3 T butter 2 T flour
A cold-set meat loaf that relies entirely on natural gelatin from the veal rather than added aspic powder. The hinge is the reduction: if the cooking liquor is not concentrated enough, the loaf will not hold a slice.
- The cut mattersFor a loaf that sets, you want a gelatin-rich cut such as veal knuckle, shank or a bony shoulder, since the set comes from connective tissue and bone. The recipe does not specify. Boneless veal cutlet will cook tender but the liquor may never set; with lean meat, a split veal or pork trotter added to the pot supplies the missing body.
- Cook gently, not hardThe recipe asks only for gentle cooking until very tender, which in practice means a bare simmer rather than a rolling boil, and likely a couple of hours or more depending on the cut. A hard boil clouds the liquor and toughens the muscle fibres before the collagen has broken down.
- Reducing the liquorBoiling down to about one cup is the whole technique. Test it by chilling a spoonful on a saucer for a few minutes; it should set firm, not merely thicken. If it stays syrupy, reduce further.
- A bread panAn ordinary loaf tin; sizes varied, so judge by the volume of your reduced mixture. Rinse it with cold water before filling, or line it, so the set loaf turns out cleanly.
- Setting time"Set in refrigerator to mould" means at least six hours and preferably overnight. Cool the mixture to room temperature first, then refrigerate uncovered until the surface firms before covering it.
- Seasoning cold foodSalt and pepper the liquor at the reduction stage and taste it warm, then push it slightly past what seems right. Chilling dulls seasoning noticeably, and jellied loaves eaten cold taste flat if seasoned for the palate at hot-serving temperature.
- SlicingA thin blade dipped in hot water and wiped between cuts gives clean slices. Half-inch is about right; thinner slices tend to collapse.
- KeepingTreat it as you would any cooked meat: three to four days refrigerated, and serve it straight from the cold. It does not freeze well, as the gelatin weeps on thawing.
Jellied loaves of this kind were a fixture of American church and club cookbooks in the early twentieth century, and they belong squarely in a "Luncheon Dishes" chapter: made the day before, sliced cold, and served with a salad or on bread. They are the domestic descendant of the older European brawn and head cheese, but made with a manageable cut of veal instead of a whole pig's head, and set in a bread pan rather than a cloth. Veal was comparatively cheap and its bones and knuckles are unusually rich in collagen, which is why it, rather than beef, became the standard meat for a set loaf before commercial gelatin was in every pantry. Compilations like this one preserve exactly these unglamorous, thrifty, make-ahead dishes.